Author Topic: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own  (Read 2945189 times)

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24775 on: 05 February, 2020, 11:19:24 am »
I was out coaching rowing this morning and was sitting on my little launch tootling through Ely at about 6.45am with the engine at tickover, going just over walking pace not to create any wash and wake up the boat-liveaboards in the marinas.  The four and pair I was coaching aren't limited to the same pace so had got about 100 yards ahead, I thought I'd seen a couple of things they could be doing better so was looking forward to getting out of town so I could catch them up, have a proper look at how it was going and start 'adding value'.  Meanwhile I was enjoying the warmth of my second coffee (bodum insulated mugs are *awesome*)

It was just about daylight, a beautiful but bloody cold winter morning in the shadow of the cathedral. There was nobody about except one guy on the footpath walking in the same direction as me who looked like he was on his way to the station to go to work - smartish jeans, nice coat, rucksack.

I got level to him and he just **explodes** with rage - I cant remember it exactly but there was a lot of high volume swearing at boats in general and me in particular, I was invited to come to the bank and he would 'fu*king knock me out'.  I declined.  The shouting went on for quite a while because our speeds were similar but eventually I got out of range and carried on with the mornings session.

How can people be bothered to be so angry at that time of the morning???

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24776 on: 05 February, 2020, 11:25:43 am »
At Edge Hill station getting a train to my GP in Huyton.  A poor young woman  there asking for directions to Edge Hill Uni.  She’s got an interview at 12


Edge Hill Uni is in Ormskirk, several miles away. She needs to get to Liverpool Lime St, then Liverpool Central, then Ormskirk, then bus or taxi.   Either that or a very expensive taxi ride  :facepalm:


FFS!  I got on my train, started reading & missed my stop.  Then realised I hadn’t even bought a ticket  :facepalm:


I blame this bloody plague, brain not working properly.
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Mr Larrington

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24777 on: 05 February, 2020, 12:53:24 pm »
At Edge Hill station getting a train to my GP in Huyton.  A poor young woman  there asking for directions to Edge Hill Uni.  She’s got an interview at 12


Edge Hill Uni is in Ormskirk, several miles away. She needs to get to Liverpool Lime St, then Liverpool Central, then Ormskirk, then bus or taxi.   Either that or a very expensive taxi ride  :facepalm:

Pales into insignificance next to a chap I encountered on me holibobs last year.  He was seeking directions from an hotel receptionist to $OTHER_HOTEL.  In Fort Worth TX.  Problem was, we were all in Phoenix AZ, which lies just over a thousand miles from Fort Worth :facepalm:
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ian

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24778 on: 05 February, 2020, 12:58:14 pm »
I had the opposite problem. I turn up at a Marriott in San Antonio. No reservation sir! Are you sure? Much tapping of computers and furrowing of brows. Time passes.

After about fifteen minutes. Perhaps you're at the Marriott across the road, sir?

I was. But really, you have two identically named hotels almost next to each other. Surely a solution to my reservation conundrum might have reached out and grabbed you more quickly.

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24779 on: 05 February, 2020, 01:05:57 pm »
I was out coaching rowing this morning and was sitting on my little launch tootling through Ely at about 6.45am with the engine at tickover, going just over walking pace not to create any wash and wake up the boat-liveaboards in the marinas.  The four and pair I was coaching aren't limited to the same pace so had got about 100 yards ahead, I thought I'd seen a couple of things they could be doing better so was looking forward to getting out of town so I could catch them up, have a proper look at how it was going and start 'adding value'.  Meanwhile I was enjoying the warmth of my second coffee (bodum insulated mugs are *awesome*)

It was just about daylight, a beautiful but bloody cold winter morning in the shadow of the cathedral. There was nobody about except one guy on the footpath walking in the same direction as me who looked like he was on his way to the station to go to work - smartish jeans, nice coat, rucksack.

I got level to him and he just **explodes** with rage - I cant remember it exactly but there was a lot of high volume swearing at boats in general and me in particular, I was invited to come to the bank and he would 'fu*king knock me out'.  I declined.  The shouting went on for quite a while because our speeds were similar but eventually I got out of range and carried on with the mornings session.

How can people be bothered to be so angry at that time of the morning???
Lord knows, but I had a similar response from a fisherman in the millpond in cambridge (where fishing is not permitted). He didn't like me paddling through there and catching his line on my boat. Maybe:
- not fishing in a prohibited area
- using fluoro floats
would have helped.
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Kim

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24780 on: 05 February, 2020, 01:08:51 pm »
I got level to him and he just **explodes** with rage - I cant remember it exactly but there was a lot of high volume swearing at boats in general and me in particular, I was invited to come to the bank and he would 'fu*king knock me out'.  I declined.  The shouting went on for quite a while because our speeds were similar but eventually I got out of range and carried on with the mornings session.

How can people be bothered to be so angry at that time of the morning???

Bloody boats, jumping red lights and boating on the pavement...   ???

Andrij

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24781 on: 05 February, 2020, 01:39:09 pm »
I got level to him and he just **explodes** with rage - I cant remember it exactly but there was a lot of high volume swearing at boats in general and me in particular, I was invited to come to the bank and he would 'fu*king knock me out'.  I declined.  The shouting went on for quite a while because our speeds were similar but eventually I got out of range and carried on with the mornings session.

How can people be bothered to be so angry at that time of the morning???

Bloody boats, jumping red lights and boating on the pavement...   ???

Don't pay road tax, either.
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24782 on: 05 February, 2020, 01:46:28 pm »
I got level to him and he just **explodes** with rage - I cant remember it exactly but there was a lot of high volume swearing at boats in general and me in particular, I was invited to come to the bank and he would 'fu*king knock me out'.  I declined.  The shouting went on for quite a while because our speeds were similar but eventually I got out of range and carried on with the mornings session.

How can people be bothered to be so angry at that time of the morning???

Bloody boats, jumping red lights and boating on the pavement...   ???

Don't pay road tax, either.

sadly we have a similar river tax though... https://www.camconservancy.org/2019-20-fees  (and insurance!  ;D)

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24783 on: 05 February, 2020, 02:28:24 pm »
When I was secretary of our local rowing club I got an extremely irate letter from a local who complained of our eights going up and down a stretch of the river banging drums  ??? It puzzled me for a while as 1) Our boats don't carry any drums and 2) It was a narrow side cut that we rarely used anyway.

He was of course referring to the local dragon boat racing association  ;D

As for Mike's experience there is a proportion of inadequates who will hurl abuse at people who they think can't retaliate because they are stuck out of range in the river - ignore the morons.
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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24784 on: 05 February, 2020, 03:00:22 pm »
At Edge Hill station getting a train to my GP in Huyton.  A poor young woman  there asking for directions to Edge Hill Uni.  She’s got an interview at 12


Edge Hill Uni is in Ormskirk, several miles away. She needs to get to Liverpool Lime St, then Liverpool Central, then Ormskirk, then bus or taxi.   Either that or a very expensive taxi ride  :facepalm:

Poor kid.

Looks like she hasn't done much homework about this outing. Given how trivially easy it is to do this online nowadays, I fear for her life skills and general ability to manage in the Real World.

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24785 on: 05 February, 2020, 03:27:08 pm »
Even if she'd not have gotten off*  at that station I doubt if she'd have made the Edge Hill campus on time.    I advised her to let them know & try to reschedule for later in the day.


*Edge Hill is the penultimate station before Liverpool Lime St.  Getting off at Edge Hill has a certain local meaning...   https://www.artinliverpool.com/xxx-get-off-at-edge-hill/
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hellymedic

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24786 on: 05 February, 2020, 05:48:29 pm »
I'd expect kids to be able to plan this kind of trip by the time they're 14.

Kim

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24787 on: 05 February, 2020, 05:54:36 pm »
As for Mike's experience there is a proportion of inadequates who will hurl abuse at people who they think can't retaliate because they are stuck out of range in the river - ignore the morons.

That would make more sense if it was the person on the boat hurling the abuse...

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24788 on: 05 February, 2020, 05:57:51 pm »

*Edge Hill is the penultimate station before Liverpool Lime St.  Getting off at Edge Hill has a certain local meaning...   https://www.artinliverpool.com/xxx-get-off-at-edge-hill/

I read the phrase 'get off at Haymarket' the other day. I assume it's the Edinburgh equivalent.
Quote
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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24789 on: 05 February, 2020, 06:01:36 pm »
I'd expect kids to be able to plan this kind of trip by the time they're 14.

Would have been normal and ordinary when we were 14, but many of today's youth have been comprehensively micromanaged all their lives, limiting the opportunity for such fuckups learning experiences until they get to university age.

I think I was 16 when I found myself most of the way to Edgware Road before noticing the HA8 postcode of the place I was trying to get to.   :facepalm:

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24790 on: 05 February, 2020, 06:54:21 pm »
I'd expect kids to be able to plan this kind of trip by the time they're 14.

Would have been normal and ordinary when we were 14, but many of today's youth have been comprehensively micromanaged all their lives,

When I was 14 I found my way to a beach near a specified village somewhere South of St Tropez. Where I met up with two mates who had also found their own way there, by varying modes of transport. We arrived within a few hours of each other. No mobile phones or any other communication methods. I have absolutely no idea how we managed it.

While I wouldn't recommend what we did, today's teenagers aren't allowed to the newsagent on their own without an adult (and usually a car too).
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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24791 on: 05 February, 2020, 06:56:52 pm »
The son of a colleague started at college this year, in a neighbouring town.
He has to catch the bus there. He had never caught a bus in his life.
He didn't realise that not all the buses going to the college would stop in the same place.
He and his mother had to have a trial run over the summer.
He's not stupid, just always lived within walking distance of wherever he needed to go, or his parents drove him.
Must be very common in smallish places, such as Yeovil.
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hellymedic

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24792 on: 05 February, 2020, 07:45:21 pm »

*Edge Hill is the penultimate station before Liverpool Lime St.  Getting off at Edge Hill has a certain local meaning...   https://www.artinliverpool.com/xxx-get-off-at-edge-hill/

I read the phrase 'get off at Haymarket' the other day. I assume it's the Edinburgh equivalent.

I assumed it was the apparent equivalent of using Branson's conveyances. It seems not.

Kim

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24793 on: 05 February, 2020, 07:54:46 pm »
The son of a colleague started at college this year, in a neighbouring town.
He has to catch the bus there. He had never caught a bus in his life.
He didn't realise that not all the buses going to the college would stop in the same place.
He and his mother had to have a trial run over the summer.
He's not stupid, just always lived within walking distance of wherever he needed to go, or his parents drove him.
Must be very common in smallish places, such as Yeovil.

To be fair, buses have always run on arcane local knowledge (where they go, which stop, what price the driver's mumbling, when to get off, etc).  Technology is starting to make a dent in some of this (Citymapper is brilliant), but an unfamiliar route is always going to be challenging.

I'm not surprised that children of drivers don't get much bus experience, especially when there aren't any bus services.  TBH, I didn't get much bus experience as a teenager, because I lived 5 minutes from a much more useful Underground station.

I note that MIL, who is a habitual driver but old enough to know better, suffers from a related delusion that you can get a train from any railway station to any other railway station without immense cost or protracted fucking about...

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24794 on: 05 February, 2020, 08:01:38 pm »
Age 14, my parents never bothered to explain to me how to use the underground to get from Paddington to Victoria, and instead had deputed $relative to meet me off one train and escort me to the other train.  $relative didn't appear (apparently I had been put on the wrong train at the start of the journey).  Much panic ensued with copious use of 5ps and public phones (luckily I did know how to use these).
Whereas telling me to get on a circle line train going southbound would have been a much better idea.
Mind you, my mum still goes la-la-la-la-I can't hear you when I talk about audax.

Similarly, one of my little dears had an interview at Bristol, but near the zoo not at the uni!  Of course anyone he asked, as soon as he mentioned the uni, directed him the wrong way.  He ended up deploying the "I'm running a bit late" manoeuvre.  They still made him an offer.
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hellymedic

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24795 on: 05 February, 2020, 08:42:00 pm »
I suppose I was travelling on buses and Tube independently from 11, as were most of my contemporaries back then.
(Come to think of it, I wasn't always accompanied on the train between London and Leicester when I was turning ten.)

I travelled (surface1) from London to visit family in Copenhagen just after my O Levels, accompanied by my sister, 17 months my junior. I don't think our parents were much involved with our journey planning. It was just something folk our age did.

1) Train from Victoria to Dover, ferry to Oostende, train to Copenhagen, using ferries (no bridges then) from Puttgarden to Rødby and across Great Belt.

ElyDave

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24796 on: 05 February, 2020, 08:44:43 pm »
I had the opposite problem. I turn up at a Marriott in San Antonio. No reservation sir! Are you sure? Much tapping of computers and furrowing of brows. Time passes.

After about fifteen minutes. Perhaps you're at the Marriott across the road, sir?

I was. But really, you have two identically named hotels almost next to each other. Surely a solution to my reservation conundrum might have reached out and grabbed you more quickly.

That was me last week, went to chek in at the Novotel, when I was in the Mercure 200yds up the  road.  To be fair, same group and I stayed at the Novotel last year
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

ian

Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24797 on: 05 February, 2020, 08:52:13 pm »
From most of the people we know with properly middle-class kids, those kids (and that's basically up to the age of 18) don't go anywhere unless they dropped off and picked up as they are transferred through a succession of organized activities. Essentially no independence, and more so as they're reliant on parental lifts to do anything.

As a kid, we disappeared all day with no supervision. All that seemed to matter was that our mums couldn't hear us, and we came home by nightfall without a police escort.

hellymedic

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24798 on: 05 February, 2020, 08:58:26 pm »
Dad mostly refused to act as a chauffeur and Mum didn't drive, like many women of her generation.
Mum usually had my younger siblings to tend so we were let out, possibly less than our peers but still much more than kids are now.

ElyDave

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Re: A random thread for small things that don't really warrant a thread of their own
« Reply #24799 on: 05 February, 2020, 09:42:18 pm »
that was back when i used to use my bike to get to school/job/rugby/XXX

If I left the house in the morning adn returned with all limbs mostly working all was good.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens